SACRAMENTO, CALIF.—It’s so easy everyone should do it and that they don’t mystifies Amir Johnson.

NBA backups are generally asked to do one thing above all else when they get on the floor — play with energy and effort and get the game going at something approaching a frenetic pace.

It’s what Johnson prides himself on, he says, and he thinks it’s odd that other players don’t always follow suit.

It’s not that he was calling out teammates or even NBA opponents, it’s just that he figures if that’s the job, do it.

“For me, that’s how I play, that’s actually how I score the ball,” Johnson said before the Raptors faced the Kings at the Sleep Train Arena here Wednesday night. “It’s not actually running plays, it’s the little stuff, the hustle stuff. If I’m open, I’ll shoot the ball, but that’s what I do.

“That’s what every player should do when they come off the bench. When they see their team is down, I mean somebody needs to give them a spark.”

For the Raptors, however, that spark has been far from consistent; Johnson and Ed Davis, the two backup big men who are the bench energy players on the roster, have had many nights where they have boosted the energy level but it’s not been often that they’ve done it in tandem.

“When you come in, you’re supposed to be energy guys,” said Johnson. “Back in Detroit, they used to call us the Zoo Crew. We were the guys who actually messed up stuff, come in and give a little energy. That’s always been my mindset.”

It can be as little as diving for loose balls or doing something out of the ordinary. Johnson’s “messed up stuff” description is wide-ranging.

“Just make something different,” he said. “Guarding the point guard out of bounds, getting steals, getting deflections, just little stuff that actually gives our team a lift and confuses their offence.”

Johnson, meanwhile, provided a different kind of spark late in Monday’s game in Denver, hitting his second three-pointer of the season late in Toronto’s ill-fated rally.

“I had to come towards the ball, once I got it, I kicked it back to Jose (Calderon) and Jose passed it back to me and I’m like, ‘What do you want me to do?’ He’s like, ‘Shoot it!’ so I did.

Defensively, some of Johnson’s best work at altering a game is with his weak-side help, he can get away from his man to disrupt an opponent’s drive through the lane, a tactic that simply comes from experience.

And it’s a tactic that rookie Jonas Valanciunas has yet to master, which is part of the reason the Raptors have taken a step back defensively this season.

It’s not that Valanciunas won’t, or can’t, do it; it’s that he’s still not sure when to go and leave his man. It’s a split-second decision the rookie is still learning to make.

“It’s reading what’s coming, anticipating is the word I want to use,” said coach Dwane Casey. “Because right now he’s so in tune with being physical with his guy, making sure he’s not letting him duck in that in that one split second he’s got to be ready.

“Amir does a good job of it, Eddie does a good job, Aaron Gray does a good job, bounce and go. You have to go protect the paint and he’s about a half second off of that, being where he has to be.

“It’s experience and being there numerous times, he’s getting better at it but he’s still not there yet. Recognizing that situation and it’s a split moment.”

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